Participating in sporting activities, such as golf, tennis, soccer, basketball and football, and playing video game simulations of these sporting activities are both popular pastimes. Currently, beyond sharing the same set of rules, the actual participation in sporting activity is quite different than playing a video gaming simulation of the sporting activity. For example, the skills needed to actually hit a golf ball are quite different than the skills needed to play a video game simulation in golf.
In recent years, video gaming systems, such as a Wii™ by Nintendo and the Xbox™ with a Kinect™ sensor by Microsoft have been introduced that include motion sensing capabilities. The video gaming systems and their sensing capabilities have allowed user motions to be used as an input mechanism for playing video games. For example, instead of hitting a button to hit a golf ball in a golf video game, using these new systems, a user can move their body in some manner to hit the golf ball where how they move their body can affect the input used for the video game and hence the golf shot shown in the video game.
One reason sports video game simulations are popular is because of their relationship to the actual activity. Although the new video game systems now allow for limited user motions while the video game is played, the relationship between the motions made while playing video games and while playing the actual sports activity is at best superficial. In view of the above, new methods and apparatus for are desired using motion sensing capabilities for playing video games.